


Future Safe 10

by Whatwefightfor



Series: We Must Be Brave [5]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Ikora's wild Crucible days, Mentions of Osiris, Names for the Ghost - "North", Names for the Player Guardian - "Ace", Post-Curse of Osiris, The Speaker - Freeform, The author accidentally foreshadows Cayde's death, This is literally just Ace and Ikora getting ramen and talking about their father figures, oof
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 02:34:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21008288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whatwefightfor/pseuds/Whatwefightfor
Summary: Ikora laughed softly. “He wasn’t what I expected, either. He’s changed.” She set down her chopsticks for a moment. “He really has.”





	Future Safe 10

“He’s not what I expected,” Ace told Ikora, after Osiris stepped back through the portal.

The Infinite Forest was open to them, with Panoptes destroyed, but he didn’t feel eager to jump back in for a while. Let the old man go wild, Ace wanted a bowl of ramen before anything else.

Preferably with Ikora’s company.

So there they were, sitting at Cayde’s favorite ramen place in the plaza. Ikora’s worktables were only thirty or so yards away, but she looked slightly awkward, like she never came around this part of the space. Her robes hung around where she sat uneasily on the stool.

It wasn’t a Zavala kind of stiffness, borne from constrained intensity and consummate professionalism. Ikora was almost…sheepish. Ace had heard rumors about her younger days, when she had a standing record in the Crucible. No one had broken it yet, not even him or Redrix. The way she carried herself now was more mature, but he knew she still had it in her.

She _had _threatened to throw him off the Tower if word got out about the Mercury mission, after all.

Ikora laughed softly. “He wasn’t what _I _expected, either. He’s changed.” She set down her chopsticks for a moment. “He really has.”

“Based on what you made him sound like,” North agreed. He had given up hovering and was sitting on the counter next to Ace’s bowl, just far enough that the broth wouldn’t splash him. “But he’s still a little…”

“Neurotic?” Ikora asked, raising an eyebrow.

“…I was going to say prickly,” North said. “But neurotic works.”

Ace pushed his bowl away. “You ever miss the Speaker?”

North and Ikora both looked at him.

“Every day,” Ikora said softly.

“Why did he banish Osiris, really?” Ace asked. “The man I knew…there’s no explanation for why he’d react like that. I’ve heard the stories, I’ve seen the records. It’s like it was someone else behind the mask back then.”

Ikora sighed. “People change,” she said simply. “Just like Osiris did, the Speaker did, too. He always had that fire in him, right to the end. But he’d mellowed. I think…I think he regretted sending Osiris away.” She picked at her ramen. “But maybe that’s just wishful thinking.”

“I don’t think so,” said North. “The Speaker cared about Osiris.”

Ace shifted in his seat. “I was just thinking that the Speaker is the closest thing I had to a mentor or teacher like yours. You and Zavala aren’t in charge of my class, and Cayde…”

“Is Cayde,” Ikora said with a smile. “I know.”

“He’s more like a friend,” Ace said. “But the Speaker, from the moment I arrived at the Tower, he was there for me. Now he’s gone.”

“One way or another, we’re left by the people who guide us.” As Ikora spoke, her Ghost, Ophiuchus, emerged, watching silently. “We do the best we can with what they leave behind.”

“I’m glad you found Osiris again,” said Ace. “And that we could help you.”

Ikora put her hand on his arm. “Thank you, my friend. I am, too.”


End file.
